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Integrated inventory and transportation policies

Viswanathan, S.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1056726685

Abstract Details

1993, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Operations Research.
We address the problem of identifying integrated inventory and transportation policies for certain capacitated production and distribution systems. We specifically study two integrated decision models in one-warehouse, multi-retailer, multi-item, distribution systems, involving inventory and transportation costs. The models we develop are applicable to certain other multi-stage production and distribution systems as well. In the first model, we assume that the deliveries are made to retailers by combining the deliveries to several retailers into an efficient vehicle route. In the second model we assume that the deliveries to each retailer are made independently. The objective is to determine integrated replenishment strategies so as to minimize the long-run average inventory and transportation costs. In the first model which we call the Integrated Inventory and Vehicle Routing Problem (IIVRP); when no inventories are held at the warehouse, the problem is equivalent to a Joint Replenishment Problem (JRP) with general joint setup costs. We study the JRP and propose a new heuristic with a lower order of computational complexity than existing algorithms. The heuristic is guaranteed to obtain a solution within six percent of the optimal for a class of joint setup cost structures known as general ized symmetric cost structures. This heuristic is then modified and adapted to solve the IIVRP. When inventories are held at the warehouse, the problem is equivalent to a one warehouse, multi-retailer system with general joint ordering costs at the retailers. We develop a new heuristic with a much lower order of computational complexity than existing methods. A computational study using randomly generated test problems, reveals the superiority of the proposed heuristic compared to existing methods. The cost of the solution generated by the proposed heuristic is on the average much less than that of existing methods. We address the second model by improving upon some results obtained for a capacitated two-stage, multi-item production system with joint setup costs. The main conceptual idea we use in solving this model is that it is to replenish all the optimal items together at any particular retailer. For the one-warehouse one-retailer system, we obtain the optimal policy. However for the one-warehouse multi-retailer system, the quality of the solutions obtain by the suggested policy is guaranteed to be close to the optimal only when certain restrictions are imposed on the capacity constraints. (Abstract shortened by UMI.
Kamlesh Mathur (Advisor)
154 p.
Integrated inventory and transportation policies.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Viswanathan, S. (1993). Integrated inventory and transportation policies [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1056726685

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Viswanathan, S.. Integrated inventory and transportation policies. 1993. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1056726685.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Viswanathan, S.. "Integrated inventory and transportation policies." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1993. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1056726685

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1056726685
820
© 1993, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.